General Contractors Probed for Tax Evasion

The heads of small construction companies are under the tax authority's scope this year, as the agency focuses on sectors with the highest suspicion of under-the-table pay.

Last month, the Tax and Customs Board conducted an unprecedented raid at 66 construction sites in Estonia.

The agency is now looking specifically at 2,285 general contractors who run companies with one to three employees and whose legal monthly income averages a modest 371 euros.

Last year, 40 million euros in tax money were withheld in the construction sector, according to the Tax and Customs Board. The low salaries in this risk category also stiffle competition in the construction market, the agency says.

“The tax administrator can't accept this situation because the heads of high-risk companies lack other sources of income and there is reason to believe that they conceal their true income,” Kaido Lemendik, director of the tax agency's audit department, said in a press release.